Connecticut anthrax tests negative

OXFORD, Connecticut (CNN) -- Negative preliminary tests on an elderly Connecticut widow's mail, her mailbox and local post office facilities left investigators still perplexed over how she could have contracted the anthrax that killed her.

Connecticut Gov. John Rowland said further tests will be done on the home of Ottilie Lundgren, 94, who died Wednesday of inhalation anthrax.

"It's good news that we haven't found any contamination in the mail facilities," he said. "The bad news from an investigative standpoint is that we're still not finding out the source of the anthrax."

Lundgren was the fifth person to die of the disease since the bacteria began turning up in mail last month. She was the second anthrax case with no apparent connection to any tainted letters that have been mailed to government and media offices.

VIDEO Death of 94-year-old Connecticut woman from inhalation anthrax has investigators baffled. CNN's Brian Cabell reports (November 22) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MORE STORIES • Anthrax found in Education Dept. mail room  • Scientists: Anthrax 'almost certainly' from U.S. defense lab  • Anthrax death a blow to small Connecticut town  • Experts doubt many past anthrax cases overlooked    Anthrax by the numbers 18 total anthrax infections 11 cases inhalation anthrax (5 dead) 7 cases cutaneous anthrax Source: CDC/CNN  Complete coverage

Sources told CNN that two weeks of mail found in Lundgren's home contained no anthrax spores, although it is possible the bacteria might have been on mail that she had already thrown out.

Investigators have been painstakingly reconstructing the last weeks of Lundgren's life, looking for some clue to the source of the contamination.

Friday, crews took environmental samples in the Nu-Look Hair Salon, where Lundgren had an appointment November 10, less than a week before she entered the hospital. Investigators also took samples in the town hall and library, as well as a local diner.

Rowland said about 400 people -- 350 postal workers and the rest "neighbors and others who may have come in contact" -- were tested for exposure to anthrax, and all had tested negative.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the 400 people had nasal swabs to check for the possible presence of anthrax. Nasal swabs do not determine if someone has anthrax infection, but do indicate if spores may be present in the person. The governor said tests on the Wallingford distribution center and the Seymour post office -- conducted with "exhaustive" sampling -- were conclusively negative.

Lisa Bull, spokeswoman for the FBI field office in New Haven, Connecticut, said investigators were "looking into every possible source of contamination -- that includes everything" -- in the search for clues to the bioterror mystery.

Sgt. J. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police said investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FBI and the state police were conducting tests on Lundgren's home, but said "to the best of my knowledge" no other locations in the area were being tested. "The lead investigators on the case will make that determination, if any other testing is needed, based on what they uncover in the investigation," he said.

On Thursday, investigators in hazardous-material suits conducted an "inch-by-inch" search of Lundgren's home in Oxford, a quiet New England town of about 9,800 people. Vance said investigators took "swabbings and any investigatory material that will assist in this investigation" and some items from the house for further investigation.

Although authorities have not announced finding any suspicious letter or package, they suspect the mail may once again be the source of contamination.

Mail to Lundgren's home would have come through the Wallingford facility -- called the Connecticut Processing and Distribution Center -- and then to a post office in Seymour, said Jim Cari, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Connecticut.

Lundgren's mail carrier, Fred Raymond, did not answer his telephone Thursday but a message on his answering machine expressed condolences to Lundgren's family. It also said that he was feeling fine and was taking Cipro.

Lundgren died Wednesday at Griffin Hospital in Derby, the same day the CDC confirmed she had inhalation anthrax. She became the nation's 18th case of anthrax -- the 11th case of the more serious inhalation variety -- since early October. The remaining seven cases were cutaneous anthrax, contracted through exposure to the skin.

The CDC confirmed Wednesday evening that the anthrax strain that infected Lundgren is indistinguishable from the strain detected in all the other cases of infection in the United States. A CDC spokeswoman also said this strain responds to all antibiotics used against it.

The FBI is treating the case as a criminal investigation.